Produced by Radar Finance and Economics, | Meng Shuai, editor| Deep Sea
Recently, the news that the Chinese Academy of Sciences decided to stop CNKI due to the difficulty of withstanding tens of millions of renewal fees has caused a lot of discussion. As of press time, topics such as #CAS deactivation of CNKI# and #Chinese Academy of Sciences response to the discontinuation of CNKI have attracted more than 350 million readers.
According to multiple media reports, the matter is true.
Radar Finance found that this is not the first time THAT KNOWLEDGE has been boycotted. In Shandong, Yunnan, Hubei, Anhui, Hebei and other places, many colleges and universities have stopped using CNKI and restarting it again. Among them, the biggest impact was in March 2016, when the official website of Peking University posted a notice of suspension due to CNKI's price increase, which raised questions about CNKI's monopoly.
"I have to pay for my own downloads, but I have never received a penny of manuscript fees." It is worth mentioning that CNKI has repeatedly been complained by the authors of unauthorized inclusion of papers, among which Zhao Dexin, an 89-year-old retired professor of Zhongnan University of Economics and Law, was included in more than 100 papers by CNKI without authorization, and the cumulative amount of victory reached more than 700,000 yuan through litigation.
"Academia has been aware of the network for a long time." A researcher at a university in Beijing told Radar Finance that CNKI has all the contents and it is difficult to be replaced in the short term. Shelling CNKI is not the goal, but hopes to explore a set of win-win solutions.
The Chinese Academy of Sciences has discontinued CNKI due to a 10 million renewal fee
On April 17, a notice email showing the "Literature and Information Center" of the Chinese Academy of Sciences was circulated on the Internet, saying that Tongfang CNKI (Beijing) Technology Co., Ltd. suspended the use of the CNKI database of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and since April 8, the database of CNKI scientific and technological journals and doctoral dissertations of the Chinese Academy of Sciences cannot be downloaded.
According to the email, the Documentation and Information Center of the Chinese Academy of Sciences has borne the full subscription fee since 2008, and has opened and used the CNKI science and technology journals and doctoral and master's degree dissertation databases in the whole hospital. However, the CNKI database with a very influential market position, the renewal price has maintained a high increase, so the total cost of the Chinese Academy of Sciences to order the CNKI database in 2021 will reach the level of tens of millions, becoming the "Big Mac" in the introduction of resources of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
The email also said that after multiple rounds of negotiations, the CNKI database still insisted on a renewal fee of nearly 10 million, so the Documentation and Information Center of the Chinese Academy of Sciences is considering forming an alternative guarantee for the CNKI database through the Vip Journal Database and the Wanfang Dissertation Database.
In fact, in recent years, many parties have complained about the high renewal fee of CNKI, and many colleges and universities have said that it is difficult to bear the price increase of CNKI, and many netizens have ridiculed "the world has been bitter for a long time".
In December 2012, the Library of Nanjing Normal University announced that due to the excessive price increase of CNKI's CNKI database merchants, the two parties had not reached an agreement on the use of the library platform, and would suspend the use of the library platform from January 1, 2013.
In December 2013 and January 2016, Wuhan University of Technology also announced the suspension of the use of CNKI twice due to price increases. In 2013, the Graduate Student Association of the School of Automobile of Wuhan University of Technology said through the official micro that the CNKI database increased by 11%, 24% and 20% respectively between 2011 and 2013, and the other party insisted that the increase in 2014 was not less than 15%, and the negotiation between the school library and CNKI failed, and the subsequent signing of the 2014 renewal contract was not completed.
In 2016, Wuhan University of Technology once again announced the suspension of the use of CNKI databases, which mentioned that CNKI's increase from 2010 to 2016 (quotation) was 132.86%, with an average annual increase of 18.98%. After 11 days, Wuhan University of Technology said that after repeated communication between the two sides, the database provider finally decided to resume opening on January 21, 2016.
In March 2016 and December 2018, Peking University and Taiyuan University of Technology also issued notices saying that they would suspend the use of CNKI databases. In addition, Nanjing Normal University, Jinling Institute of Science and Technology and other schools have also issued similar notices.
Radar Finance learned from the Chinese government procurement network that in 2022, the final transaction amount of the CNKI database procurement project of the digital resources of the Central South University Library was 1.5 million yuan; Wuhan University of Technology purchased the CNKI database project at a price of 1.2785 million yuan; tongfang CNKI (Beijing) Technology Co., Ltd. won the bid for the "CNKI" series of electronic resource procurement projects of Shanghai Normal University for 798,000 yuan Beijing Language and Culture University renewed the CNKI database for 654,600 yuan.
It is worth mentioning that, taking the Innovation and Development Center of Harbin Engineering University in Qingdao as an example, the transaction price of the unit's 2022 Wanfang database procurement project is 180,000 yuan, which is far lower than the transaction price of its CNKI (CNKI) database procurement project of 2.2 million yuan, and the latter procurement price is more than 12 times the former purchase price.
Because CNKI currently has a relatively leading market position in the same type of market, questions about whether CNKI is suspected of monopoly can often be heard on the Network. On March 9 this year, the Anti-Monopoly Department of the State Administration for Market Regulation said in response to an online message from a reporter about whether CNKI is suspected of monopoly, "The State Administration for Market Regulation is verifying and studying." ”
The ninety-year-old professor informed the network that the unauthorized collection of papers was compensated by more than 700,000 yuan
It is worth mentioning that this is not the first time that CNKI has become the center of public opinion in recent times. Since the "Zhai Tianlin did not know the network" incident, in December last year, Zhao Dexin, a retired professor in his nearly nineties at Zhongnan University of Economics and Law, informed the network, once again making CNKI the center of the topic, and the case also became one of the top ten judicial cases of network governance in 2021.
The cause of the incident was that CNKI had arbitrarily included more than 100 papers written by Professor Zhao Dexin with a lot of time and energy, but the professor himself did not receive a penny from it, and when readers even downloaded their own articles, they had to pay separately, so Professor Zhao Dexin sued CNKI in court. According to the China Judgment Documents Network, searching for the entry "Zhao Dexin CNKI" can retrieve as many as 204 relevant legal documents.
Subsequently, CNKI lost the lawsuit and was awarded more than 700,000 yuan by the court to compensate Professor Zhao Dexin. On December 10 of the same year, CNKI apologized to Professor Zhao Dexin through its public account.
CNKI said that China Academic Journals (CD-ROM Edition) Electronic Magazine Co., Ltd. is the organizer of CNKI, and has deleted the works related to Professor Zhao Dexin, and will actively communicate with Professor Zhao Dexin with the editing and publishing units of relevant journals, and properly handle the problem of Professor Zhao Dexin's works continuing to spread on the CNKI platform.
For CNKI's apology, Professor Zhao Dexin responded that on this issue itself, CNKI's apology attitude is still OK, but it is also hoped that the other party can come up with sincerity and specific rectification measures to solve the problem, rather than staying on the surface, "can not lose the lawsuit to remove my article."
It is worth mentioning that in addition to Zhao Dexin, Professor Zhou Xiuluan, who was 93 years old at the time, and Professor Su Shaozhi, a student of Zhao Dexin, also sued CNKI for infringement.
According to the Yangtze River Daily, after the news of the suspension of CNKI incident by the Chinese Academy of Sciences was fermented on the Internet, Professor Zhao Dexin also spoke out again after more than 4 months.
Professor Zhao Dexin said that after the SELF-KNOWLEDGE network issued an apology statement to it, the staff of the CNKI party came to visit before the Spring Festival, but did not discuss the substantive issues, after raising the question, the other party did not express its position, and since then, the convenience has not been contacted, nor has it discussed with it about the re-listing of the paper, "The progress is too slow, I estimate that it is useless to urge them."
In addition to being sued by the author, CNKI has also been sued by platform users. In May 2018, Xiao Liu, a college student in Suzhou, needed to pay 7 yuan to download materials on CNKI for writing a paper, and the website required him to recharge a minimum of 50 yuan, but since then, Xiao Liu's remaining 43 yuan has fallen into a complicated and difficult refund process, so Xiao Liu informed the network. In February 2019, the court held that the CNKI Recharge Center's provisions on the minimum recharge limit were invalid. According to reports, CNKI updated the payment settings of the website.
In addition, Tianyan's investigation shows that the judicial disputes involved in China Academic Journals (CD-ROM Edition) Electronic Magazine Co., Ltd. in recent years are mostly related to infringement, of which 832 cases involving copyright ownership and infringement disputes, 678 cases involving disputes involving infringement of the right to dissemination of works on the information network, and 139 cases involving infringement of other copyright property rights disputes; the company's legal litigation as a defendant/appellee involved an amount of 3.135 million yuan.
Back to Tsinghua Gross profit margin of more than 50%
Where is CNKI, which has been repeatedly involved in controversy? In March 1999, with the overall goal of comprehensively opening up the information channels of knowledge production, dissemination, diffusion and utilization, and building an exchange and cooperation platform that supports knowledge innovation, learning and application in various industries across the country, Wang Liangming proposed the construction of China's knowledge infrastructure project, which was listed as a key project of Tsinghua University. Since then, CNKI has gradually developed and grown with the strong support of policies and the help of many universities and scientific research institutions.
According to the official website of CNKI, CNKI is a wholly-owned company of Tsinghua Holdings Co., Ltd. and Tongfang Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of Tsinghua University, and is a high-tech cultural enterprise specializing in the integrated digital publishing of global academic, educational and other literature resources, and providing knowledge management and knowledge services for innovation in all walks of life.
Tongfang Shares once said in the financial report that as an additional condition for Tsinghua Holdings Co., Ltd. to transfer the capital contribution rights and interests of China Academic Journals (CD-ROM Edition) Electronic Magazine Co., Ltd., Tongfang CNKI Digital Publishing Technology Co., Ltd. agreed to accept the entrustment of Tsinghua Holdings Co., Ltd. to exercise the management rights and business decision-making rights of electronic magazines on behalf of Tsinghua Holdings Co., Ltd.
According to Tianyan, China Academic Journals (CD-ROM Edition) Electronic Magazine Co., Ltd. is 100% controlled by Tsinghua Holdings Co., Ltd., and the suspected actual controller of the former is Tsinghua University. In addition, Wang Liangming, who graduated from Tsinghua University and served as vice president of Tongfang Shares, served as the legal representative of a number of CNKI affiliates such as China Academic Journals (CD-ROM Edition) Electronic Magazine Co., Ltd., Tongfang CNKI (Beijing) Technology Co., Ltd., and Tongfang CNKI Digital Publishing Technology Co., Ltd.
It is reported that CNKI currently has 27,000 institutional users in more than 50 countries and regions around the world, with a total annual download of 2 billion articles, covering university scientific research, party and government enterprises and their think tanks, public prosecutors, french and military, medicine and health, primary and secondary schools and rural areas, of which university users cover 76% of the world's top 500 universities.
How profitable is CNKI, which has been spat at by many colleges and universities and endorsed by Tsinghua? Radar Finance noted that the gross profit margin of CNKI,the company behind CNKI, remained above 50% all year round.
According to the 2020 annual report released by Tongfang Shares, the main business income of its company Tongfang CNKI in 2020 was 1.168 billion yuan, the net profit attributable to the shareholders of the parent company was 193 million yuan, the gross profit margin was as high as 53.93%, and the gross profit margin index ranked first among the main holding and shareholding subsidiaries of Tongfang Shares; in the first half of last year, the main business income of Tongfang CNKI was 496 million yuan, the net profit attributable to the mother was 18.927 million yuan, and the gross profit margin was also more than half, reaching 51.3%.
For CNKI, which has frequently caused controversy, people's daily has commented, "CNKI should better undertake the mission of disseminating academic resources and promoting academic exchanges, rather than planting cash cows and reading crooked business economics." In recent years, CNKI has faced pricing turmoil and copyright disputes, and has been plagued by lawsuits and criticism. It's time to reflect on yourself and refresh your business philosophy! Take action, change the inclusion, operation and profit model, more public welfare, less copper smell, CHINA KNOWLEDGE can be stable and far-reaching, and weave the web of knowledge well. ”
Note: This article is the original of Radar Finance (ID: leidacj). Unauthorized reproduction is prohibited.